Tour of the Solar System

Question 1

What is the Solar System Census?

Answer 1

Includes 1 mid-sized main sequence star (The Sun), 8 planets, 5 dwarf planets, 200+ moons. Earth= 1 , Mars =2, Jupiter = 79, Saturn = 82, Uranus = 27, Neptune=14, Pluto = 5, +1 mill asteroids, 3701+ comets

Question 2

What is A Star?

Answer 2

A large glowing ball of gas that generates heat and light through nuclear fusion

Question 3

What is nuclear fusion?

Answer 3

It is the process that takes place within the center of the star, a place so hot that it is fusing atoms together. IT takes hydrogen, fusing them together, creating new elements and releasing heat

Question 4

What is the temperature of the Sun, Spin Rate, Diameter?

Answer 4

Surface Temp: 5800 Kelvin, or 5526 Degrees Celsius
Core Temp: 15 million Kelvin
Spin Rate: 1 rotation every 25 Earth Days
Diameter: 1,392,700 KM (109x the Earth)

Question 5

What is the Solar Cycle?

Answer 5

A Cycle that the sun goes through every 11 years. Is determined by the number of sunspots available on the surface.

Question 6

What are the Rocky Planets?

Answer 6

Mercury, Venus, Earth Mars

Question 7

What are the Gas planets?

Answer 7

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Question 8

Mercury Properties?

Answer 8

Moons: 0
Atmosphere:
-Almost no atmosphere

• Mercury has a small trace of gas, but it doesn’t stick around very long because it is blown away by the Sun.
• Therefore not the very stable atmosphere
• Most prefer to call it an exosphere
• Surface Temperature: between -180 C and 430 C
• Day: 58.7 Earth Days

-Year: 88 Earth Days

Question 9

Venus Properties?

Answer 9

• Moons: 0
• Atmosphere: Very thick, made up mainly of CO2, 92 times thicker than Earth’s atmosphere.
• Surface Temperature: Hottest planet in the solar system, due to CO2 heat retention. 460 degrees C or hotter
• Day: 116 Earth Days Backwards
• Year: 224.65 Earth Days

Question 10

Earth Properties?

Answer 10

• Moon:1
• Atmosphere: 70% Nitrogen
• Surface Temp: between -89.2 C and 54.4 C
• Day: 24 Hrs
• Year: 365.25 Days

Question 11

Mars Properties?

Answer 11

• Moons: 2
• Atmosphere: 100x thinner than Earth’s
• Surface Temperature: between -140 C and 30 C
• Day:24.63 hours
• Year: 687 Earth Days

Question 12

Jupiter Properties?

Answer 12

-Moons: 79

Galilean Moons: Most Volcanically Active in the S.S

Europa: contains more water than earth. Surface is an ice sheet covering an ocean.

Callisto: Larger than our moon
Ganymede: Largest moon in the SS, contains water

• Day; ~ 10 Earth hours
• Year: ~ 12 Earth years
• Has rings

Question 13

Saturn Properties?

Answer 13

-Moons: 82
Enceladus: Ice moon w water underneath. Geysers shooting water into space, create a thin ring around Saturn.

-Titan: Saturn’s largest moon; the only moon w an atmosphere, mainly made of nitrogen; has lakes of methane and ethane. Only other bodies in the solar system that has liquids on its surface.

• Atmosphere: 75% hydrogen, 25% helium (w/ traces of other substances such as methane + water ice)
• Surface Temp: -173 C < 113 C
• Day: 10.5 Earth hours
• Year: 29 Earth years

Presence of Rings: yes, it has its own ring system
The rings are made up of water ice, ranging in size from sand grains, to the size of a house
There are seven main ring structures that are labeled in order of their discovery

Question 14

Uranus Properties:

Answer 14

-Moons: 27

Day: 17 Earth hours

Year: 84 Earth years

Presence of Rings: yes, it has its own ring system

Question 15

Neptune Properties?

Answer 15

-Moons: 14
Triton: a retrograde moon, possibly from collision

Orbits Neptune in the opposite direction of other moons

Day: 14 Earth hours
Year: 164 Earth years

Presence of Rings: yes, it has its own ring system

Question 16

Pluto Properties?

Answer 16

One orbit around the sun: 248 years

Orbit is not completely plane with the rest of the orbits in the solar system

Pluto has 5 moons, a notable one being Charon

Atmosphere: Thin atmosphere made of carbon monoxide, methane, in distinct layers

Movement of ice sheets detected
Polygonal shapes are evidence of convection occurring

Question 17

What is the difference between a sidereal day and a synodic (solar) day?

Answer 17

Sidereal: the time required for one period to repeat in relation to a distant star (Earth spinning once on its own axis) 23 HRs 56 Mins

Synodic: the time required for one period to repeat in relation to a solar body (Earth spinning to face the sun again) 24 HRs

Question 18

Why does Venus appear to have phases?

Answer 18

This is because Venus is between Earth and sun, when it goes around the sun, it has phases like the moon.

Question 19

Asteroid Belt Properties?

Answer 19

• a circular band of objects that exists between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter (in between the rocky planets and gas planets)
• Composed of approximately 1,000,000 irregularly shaped objects (much smaller than planets)

Individual objects are referred to as:
Asteroids, Minor planets, Dwarf planets
Sometimes called the main asteroid belt to distinguish it from other groups of asteroid (Ex: Trojans, Greeks, Apollos)

Asteroids are composed mainly of rocky material. Some have iron ices

Some asteroids are large and compact, others are small are resemble loosely packed “rubble piles”

The largest object in the asteroid belt is the dwarf planet Ceres

The total mass of the entire asteroid belt is less than that of Earth’s Moon

Question 20

Be able to describe some moons in the outer solar system, and why they are so unique.

Answer 20

Jupiter: IO(largest volcanic), Callisto(2nd largest for Jupiter and 3rd largest for solar system), Europa(most water), Ganymede(largest moon, also has water, larger than earth’s moon)

Saturn: Enceladus(water geyser- creating ring), Titan (largest for Saturn, most dense atmosphere. Second body with water on surface)

Neptune: Triton(retrograde motion due to collision)

Question 21

Kuiper Belt Properties?

Answer 21

Kuiper Belt: A circular band of objects that exists beyond Neptune’s orbit. These are ice water, comet-like bodies. PLUTO and ERIS are the biggest.

The largest objects are:

Pluto (dwarf planet) and its Moons

Eris (dwarf planet)

Haumea (dwarf planet)

Makemake (dwarf planet)

Question 22

What is an astronomical unit (AU)?

Answer 22

1 astronomical unit (AU): the average distance between the Earth and the Sun

Question 23

What is the order of the planets, starting from the center of the solar system, and what are their distances in AU?

Answer 23

Mercury: 0.39 au
Venus: 0.72 au
Earth: 1.00 au
Mars: 1.52 au
Jupiter: 5.20 au
Saturn: 9.58 au
Uranus: 19.20 au
Neptune: 30.05 au

Question 24

What is the IAU definition of a planet? Be able to explain why Pluto is not considered a planet.

Answer 24

IAU Planet Criteria:

• Criteria #1: must orbit a star (this excludes the moon)
• Criteria #2: must be spherical (this excludes most asteroids and comets)(have to be big enough so that have enough gravity to pull it in a spherical shape)
• Criteria #3: must have cleared the debris in its orbit all the way around (excludes all asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects, including Pluto)

Pluto cannot be a planet, because it has not met criteria #3

Question 25

What is a dwarf planet?

Answer 25

-solar-orbiting spheres that didn’t clear their orbits (met either criteria 1 or 2 or both)

Confirmed Dwarf Planets:
Pluto
Eris
Haumea
Makemake
Ceres

Question 26

What is the Oort Cloud?

Answer 26

a spherical cloud that surrounds the entire solar system made of icy pieces of space debris

1950s: Jan Oort proposed that long-period comets come from a shell of collision remnants around the solar system, now called the “Oort Cloud”. But nothing has been yet, to prove this.

Question 27

What is the rough age of the solar system?

Answer 27

About 4.5 billion years ago

Question 28

Where is most of the mass of the solar system concentrated? How much mass is there? Where is the rest of the mass?

Answer 28

The sun is the most massive member of the solar system
99.8 % of the total mass of the sun, 0.10% Jupiter, 0.005-0.03 % comets, 0.04 %all other plants, 0.00005
% moons and rings, 0.000002 %asteroids, 0.000001 % cosmic dust

Question 29

What are the basic differences between terrestrial planets and Jovian planets? Answer in terms of distance, orbital period, size, mass, and density.

Answer 29

Terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars (less distanced from the sun, small orbital period, low diameter, low mass, and high density)

Jovian planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Question 30

Density Equation

Answer 30

Density= Mass/Volume

Question 31

Understand the definitions and basic properties of the smaller bodies in the solar system: natural satellites (moons), asteroids, comets, meteors, and meteorites.

Answer 31

• Moon: natural satellite orbiting planets
• Asteroids: small rocky bodies
• Comets: small bodies are composed mostly of ice, made of frozen gasses such as water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide.
• Comets: They are remnants from the formation of the solar system, but they were formed and continue (with rare exceptions) to orbit the Sun in distant, cooler regions—stored in a sort of cosmic deep freeze. This is also the realm of the larger icy worlds, called dwarf planets.
• Meteors: cosmic dust entering earth’s atmosphere, burning up and producing flashes of light

Meteorites: some larger chunk of rocky or metallic material survives its passage through the atmosphere and lands on Earth. Any piece that strikes the ground is known as a meteorite.

Question 32

If the solar system or scale down so that the Sun was the size of an average adult, how far away would Earth be? How big would Earth be in the scale model?

Answer 32

Earth is at a distance of 150m from the Sun. Earth has a diameter of 1.3 cm about the size of a grape.